Wee Monkey Figurine

Big Mushrooms

This mushroom (and several just like it) sprouted underneath a pine tree in my backyard. It's about as big as my outspread hand:

Fireworks Are a Good Thing

Watched the Lake Union fireworks from the roof of an apartment building on Westlake. A fine time was had by all.

Oops. In All Fairness ...

I should report that Earthlink responded pretty quickly to my e-mail. But I won't have any reassurance that anything has actually been corrected until nothing happens in the first week of August. Confidence in the correction will be much longer in coming, although if nothing happens in September, I guess I can downgrade Earthlink to merely Def Con: Annoyance.

Too much human, not enough interest

This story, in the Seattle P-I is just too detailed. Baby wipes? Honey buckets?! Enough! In the words of the Powerpuff Girls narrator, "TMI, Mr. Mayor, TMI."

Which is it?

Pesky time-space: "The star blew up 300 years ago ... resides 10,000 light-years away ..."
I'm sure what was meant was that the supernova was observed 300 years ago; an almost excusable lack of precision unless, of course, one is the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach. Details, people!

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

Earthlink sucks.

I sent this to, I kid you not, markcanhelp@earthlink.net. It would be funny if it wasn't so stupid. I CC'ed the Attorney General of Washington State, who took an interest.

Dear Sir,

I hold in my hand, delivered yesterday, yet ANOTHER bill for account 1234567. This account was set up in error by Earthlink. I reiterate that I have never ordered, authorized or failed to opt-out of any business relationship with Earthlink. I have repeatedly, monthly in fact, requested that my name be removed from your records.

In my other hand I hold your letter dated May 23, 2002, assuring the office of the Attorney General of Washington and me that this issue would be resolved "easily." I am still waiting for that resolution. The effect of Earthlink's failure to correct this situation becomes onerous.

Earthlink also sent a bill last month but I ignored it as you requested that I allow two weeks for your accounting department to adjust the balance. This I did, hoping that some change had actually taken place. Clearly this is not so. It might have behooved you and your accounting department to adjust the balance in a more timely and permanent way to a more appropriate figure such as ZERO.

Please take whatever technical, administrative or legal steps needed to remove me from your records. The more complete this removal, the happier I will be with the situation. I suggest that you do not depend on whatever system has been deployed so far to so little effect, and instead just FIX THE PROBLEM. For me to receive another bill is not acceptable, as I am sure you must agree.

I would give my assistance if there was anything else I could do, but the situation was generated entirely within your system with no input whatsoever from me. I have nothing to offer except repeated complaints at receiving a bill.

My best but frustrated regards,

Kyle Beatty

I probably need therapy

Kyle says operator error wasn't the cause of my previously failed blog. This makes me feel much better. Better than knowing that my new passion for Qbert (for the PC, $5 at Half Price Books) may eventually lead me to throw up a web page like this.
I can never hope to achieve such heights.

I clearly need to view the help file to get this to work.

Today's Joy of Tech is blog humor. Funny because it's true!

From geekculture.com, some wet weather.

This is the anniversary of this blog! Huzzah!

Here's a fun, new game: try to tell if the customer support reps on the other side of these chats, are in fact human beings. During the exchange, I had the distinct impression that I was chatting with the old "Eliza" program. The end result was not satisfactory.

Impulse Purchase!

Ridiculous impulse purchase. O, buyer's regret!



Dark City (Jones)

Ravenous (Nyman)

The Powerpuff Girls: The City of Soundsville

American Journey - Winter Olympics 2002 (Williams)

Professor!

And ... ?

It's not entirely clear to me what the significance of this is:
"By 12:30 p.m., about 450 people had visited the seismology lab's Web site and people from Bremerton to Olympia reported feeling the earthquake. It also was felt in North Seattle and south King County."

The full article.

The Toa Maiden project continues apace. No new pictures. That is all.

Something Else I Covet:

I wouldn't mind having one of these Visors. I want a blue one.

It is, reportedly, a bird. Emu?

Birds, especially when rendered in Lego, are inherently funny:

Desperate Measures Already Forgotten

Brief note on Desperate Measures by Trevor Jones. I cannot remember a solitary thing about it except there was an annoying song at one point. It was mostly pretty dreary drones in the suspense style. No doubt functional. I'll listen again to see if I just failed to pick up on the point.

Neither Love Or Money Satisfactory

a brief note on Love or Money - This was a frustrating listen. The main body of the music is taken up with a trivial tune noodled on sax in the smooth "lite radio" idiom.Only a few hints of interesting orchestration kept me from taking it out of the CD player immediately. The frustration lies in that there are scattered throughout the score many isolated examples of Broughton's talent for melody. The overall effect is what might result if Bruce Broughton was hired to score your cousin's wedding reception.

My Birthday is Coming Up In ... Several Months ...

It would be outrageous and wrong to order these on the same day that they are released. See how I am resisting the impulse, born of pretty good marketing, to order these right now?


The Expert Builder Set:



The Boxor:



The Exo-Toa:

Victorian Child's Picture Book

It occurred to me during my morning commute that it might be a symptom of a healthy human ecology if the widest roads in general use were no wider than two lanes. This actually is more of a symptom of my fantasy life which bears a substantial debt to The Shire. That seems like a fine place. In the matter of the roads, those neare to great cities would have to be wider. But the cities themselves would not be the appalling excesses that exist now but would be much smaller and far fewer. Perhaps limited to cobbled London, Gothic Paris, ancient Rome, storied Athens and spirey Baghdad. That this sounds more like the captions on color lithos in a Victorian child's picture book is another symptom of my fantasy life.

FW: Mariners vs the Cardinals

I had fun at last night's game, mostly because of the nice company that I keep, but I'm afraid that the Cardinals were not looking their best and the actual play was uneventful. The Mariners offense was better than usual.
Greatest discovery: the seats above the midpint of the first base line are amazingly good. Second greatest discovery: the garlic fries are good food. It's hard to go wrong with garlic and potatoes, but these were exceptional.

I can't recommend the Kölsch from Pyramid brewery. Just not an interesting beer. All praise to their IPA, of course.

The new football stadium lacks the architectural detailing that would give it some character. The roofs (rooves?) over the seating are supported on dramaticaly bifurcated pylons, but the rest of it is blah. The two stadiums are very similar in overall appearance. That's my ruling.

Mt. Baker Expedition reported to me that contrary to the standing order, "summit at all costs," reason prevailed under the onslaught of strong winds, equipment difficulties and inexperience with knots. Commander Scott has been sacked and his dogs eaten. No negative impact on the Yeti expedition is expected.

And just to clarify, Dmitri Tiomkin never wrote a score for This Island Earth. Although he could have if he wanted to, I guess. But he didn't. Anyone who tells you that I told them that there ever was such a score is either mistaken or a liar. Shun him.

And the eclipse was not very noticeable. We were looking for it but didn't see a darn thing.

An improved rendering of the Exo puzzle:

CDs Purchased

Bought used:



Lover's Prayer (Joel McNeely)

Men With Guns (Mason Daring)

The Portrait of a Lady (Wojcieck Kilar)

The World Is Not Enough (David Arnold)

For Love or Money (Bruce Broughton)

Desperate Measures (Trevor Jones)

A Puzzle

From this Bionicle fan site comes a puzzle. My partial solution:

Spines Printed

Made spines for those pesky uninformative and/or illegible CDs:

Ginny Brings Back Spoils from the Hunt!

A garage sale find:

Remains of the Day (Richard Robbins)